Centuries in the past, mankind fought a seemingly unbeatable adversary from sector to sector across the Spiral Arm until the war ground to a standstill and the Enemy withdrew. Believing that they had won, the citizens of the galaxy rebuilt. The Inner Worlds, which had escaped the worst of the war's ravages, became even more insular, while the Rim worlds adopted a free and easy way with law and order. Now, hundreds of years after their withdrawal, the Enemy is back - and this time they'll be satisfied with nothing less than the extinction of the galaxy.

Crystal Dragon: Liaden Universe Books of Before, Book 2

What do you do when home is a conspiracy that's been discovered and destroyed? When home is a planet in a star system that's gone missing? When home means working for the destroyers of galaxies? When home is a spaceship that's calling out to the enemy? Cantra 'yos Phelium isn't a quitter, but she has more than a little problem: the Enemy has accelerated its attacks and how do you fight an Enemy whose major form of attack is the de-crystallization of everything around itself?

Balance of Trade: Liaden Universe Books of Before, Book 3

Assistant Trader Jethri Gobelyn was an honest, hardworking young man who knew a lot about living onboard his family's space-going trade ship; something about trade, finance, and risk-taking; and a little bit about Liadens. It was, oddly enough, the little bit he knew about Liadens that seemed like it might be enough to make his family's fortune, and his own, too. In short order, however, Jethri Gobelyn was about to find out a lot more about Liadens... like how far they might go to protect their name and reputation.

Dragon in Exile: Liaden Universe: Arc of the Covenants, Book 1

Star-trading Clan Korval - known to Terrans as the Tree-and-Dragon Family and to the locals simply as the Dragon - has been convicted of crimes against the homeworld. No matter that one of the "crimes" consisted of saving the elitist planet of Liad from very real internal threats, the Council of Clans wanted Korval heads to roll. Unfortunately for the council, the Dragon's allies conspired to impose a milder punishment for saving the world: banishment rather than execution.

Mouse & Dragon: Liaden Universe Space Regencies, Book 3

Aelliana Caylon has escaped her abusive family. She's found love in her starship co-pilot - a man who turns out to be the leader of Korval, the most powerful clan of the Liaden Universe. But destiny never intended an easy life for Aelliana. Insidious forces within the empire are determined that a new line of Korval heirs be destroyed and that Clan Korval itself be blasted to interplanetary dust. The fight for the future of the Liaden Universe is on, and one heroine is determined to protect her family and her soul mate.

Trade Secret: Liaden Universe Books of Before, Book 4

In a universe full of interstellar intrigue and burgeoning commerce novice Terran trader Jethri Gobelyn, adopted by a Liaden clan after an ill-directed bow of honor insulted the scion of a major Liaden house, is alive and whole to tell the tale. Convinced that the adoption has saved his life and made his future he settles into a comfortable and even elite routine, a Trader's Ring his goal.

I Dare: Liaden Universe Agent of Change, Book 5

This long-awaited culmination of the Agent of Change sequence of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's internationally acclaimed Liaden Universe novels pits unexpected friends and unexpected enemies against each other in a war that spans planets and races - and threatens to bring interstellar violence to the very surface of fabled Liad.

Plan B: Liaden Universe Agent of Change, Book 4

Pursued across space by the ultra-secret Department of the Interior, hunted by the galaxy-wide Juntavas syndicate, former Agent of Change Val Con yos'Phelium and his ex-soldier lifemate Miri Robertson have commandeered the only spaceship on Vandar and fled, seeking help from Miri's newly discovered kin on Lytaxin. Elsewhere, Clan Korval is in action. Scattered across space by the newly invoked Plan B, certain clan members pursue the search for the long-missing Val Con.

Carpe Diem: Liaden Universe Agent of Change, Book 3

On the run from interplanetary assassins, covert operative Val Con yos'Phelium and former mercenary sergeant Miri Robertson end up stranded on a distant planet - with no rescue in sight. Until they figure out a way back to Liad, these two lost souls must find a way to trust each other - and let their true love heal the dark wounds of their past.

Agent of Change: Liaden Universe Agent of Change, Book 1

Fleeing the scene of his latest mission, Val Con yos'Phelium finds himself saving the life of ex-mercenary Miri Robertson, a young Tarren on the run from interplanetary assassins. Thrown together by circumstances, Val Con and Miri struggle to elude their enemies and stay alive without slaying each other - or surrendering to the unexpected passion that flares between them.

Conflict of Honors: Liaden Universe Agent of Change, Book 2

In the third novel of the Liaden Universe, Priscilla Delacroix is betrayed and abandoned by her shipmates. But confronting the crew will be far easier - and safer - than confronting the demons of her past.

Necessity's Child: A Novel of the Liaden Universe

The kompani see none as an enemy, and yet few as friend. The kompani exist in many places, living quietly in the shadows, thriving off the bounty that others have no wit to secure, nor skill to defend. Their private history is unwritten; their recall rooted in dance and dream. The Clan Korval is in many ways the opposite of the kompani. The interstellar trading clan is wealthy in enemies, and fortunate in friends. Korval protects itself with vigor, and teaches even its youngest children the art of war

Dragon Ship: Liaden Universe; Theo Waitley, Book 4

First Class Courier Pilot Theo Waitley was already known as a nexus of violence - and then she inherited the precarious captaincy of a mysterious self-aware ship designed to serve a long dead trader. Now she has a trade route to run for Clan Korval while she convinces the near-mythic ghost ship Bechimo - and herself - that she wants to commit herself as the human side to their immensely powerful symbiosis. While her former lover battles a nanovirus that's eating him alive, she's challenged to rescue hundreds of stranded pilots and crewmen from an explosive situation in near orbit around a suddenly hostile planet.

Ghost Ship: Liaden Universe, Theo Waitley, Book 3

New novel in the Liaden Universe series. Over a quarter million copies sold in this series to-date! Space ships, action, adventure – all tied together with a strong dollop of romance and family saga – make this a compelling series for a wide range of readers, from romance to military SF lovers alike.

Saltation: Liaden Universe Theo Waitley, Book 2

Theo, star pilot wannabe and troubled misfit has been accepted, against all her expectations, to Anlingdin. It’s the Hogwarts of star piloting academies, and Theo has been selected to train there with the best-of-the-best. Even better - she can finally leave behind the gawky, misfit days of teenage angst her previous life so complicated before. Great Liaden star pilots are born with a bang and not a whimper - and Theo has set a course to graduate from misfit to genuine maverick.

Fledgling: Liaden Universe: Theo Waitley, Book 1

Theo Waitley has lived all her young life on Delgado, a Safe World that is home to one of the galaxy's premier institutions of higher learning. Both Theo's mother, Kamele, and Kamele's onagrata Jen Sar Kiladi, are professors at the university, and they all live comfortably together, just like they have for all of Theo's life, in Jen Sar's house at the outskirts of town.Suddenly, though, Theo's life changes. Kamele leaves Jen Sar and moves herself and Theo back into faculty housing, which is not what Theo is used to.

The Tomorrow Log

Meanwhile, on another side of the Universe. . .Meet Gem ser'Edreth, a wizard with electronics -- and a freelance thief. Deliberately solitary, unencumbered by family or friends, he immerses himself in his profession, rising to a pinnacle of skill so exalted that the planetary crime boss seeks him out with a commission to steal. Refusing the commission, of course, is his first mistake.

Earth Strike: Star Carrier, Book One

There is a milestone in the evolution of every sentient race, a Tech Singularity Event, when the species achieves transcendence through its technological advances. Now the creatures known as humans are near this momentous turning point. But an armed threat is approaching from deepest space, determined to prevent humankind from crossing over that boundary - by total annihilation if necessary.

Star Corps: Book One of The Legacy Trilogy

Many millennia ago, the human race was enslaved by the An - a fearsome alien people whose cruel empire once spanned the galaxies, until they were defeated and consigned to oblivion. But a research mission to the planet Ishtar has made a terrifying - and fatal - discovery: The Ahanu, ancestors of the former masters, live on, far from the reach of Earth - born weapons and technology ... and tens of thousands of captive human souls still bow to their iron will.

Gabriel’s Ghost: The Dock Five Universe Series, Book 1

After a decade of piloting interstellar patrol ships, former captain Chasidah Bergren, onetime pride of the Sixth Fleet, finds herself court-martialed for a crime she didn't commit and shipped off to a remote prison planet from which no one ever escapes. But when she kills a brutal guard in an act of self-defense, someone even more dangerous emerges from the shadows. Gabriel Sullivan alpha mercenary, smuggler, and rogue is supposed to be dead.

Jane Carver of Waar: Waar, Book 1

Jane Carver is nobody's idea of a space princess. A hard-ridin', hard-lovin' biker chick and ex-Airborne Ranger, Jane is as surprised as anyone else when, on the run from the law, she ducks into the wrong cave at the wrong time - and wakes up butt-naked on an exotic alien planet light-years away from everything she's ever known. Waar is a savage world of four-armed tiger-men, sky-pirates, slaves, gladiators, and purple-skinned warriors in thrall to a bloodthirsty code of honor and chivalry.

Foreigner: Foreigner Sequence 1, Book 1

The first book in C.J.Cherryh's eponymous series, Foreigner begins an epic tale of the survivors of a lost spacecraft who crash-land on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient alien race. From its beginnings as a human-alien story of first contact, the Foreigner series has become a true science fiction odyssey, following a civilization from the age of steam through early space flight to confrontations with other alien species in distant sectors of space. It is the masterwork of a truly remarkable author.

Tinker: Elfhome, Book 1

Inventor, girl genius Tinker lives in a near-future Pittsburgh which now exists mostly in the land of the elves. She runs her salvage business, pays her taxes, and tries to keep the local ambient level of magic down with gadgets of her own design. When a pack of wargs chase an Elven noble into her scrap yard, life as she knows it takes a serious detour.

Publisher's Summary

Centuries in the past, mankind fought a seemingly unbeatable adversary from sector to sector across the Spiral Arm until the war ground to a standstill and the Enemy withdrew. Believing that they had won, the citizens of the galaxy rebuilt. The Inner Worlds, which had escaped the worst of the war's ravages, became even more insular, while the Rim worlds adopted a free and easy way with law and order. Now, hundreds of years after their withdrawal, the Enemy is back - and this time they'll be satisfied with nothing less than the extinction of the galaxy.

I've never a Liaden book or a book from the authors. This far future sci-fi tale was interesting, the pace was constant, and the universe interesting. While this novel didn't excite me terribly, but it kept my attention and there are some interesting ideas that are in the background that will clearly be major elements of future books as this book was written after but takes place before the main series of books. I will look forward to reading them.

I've downloaded quite a few sci-fi series and I would have to say that so far this is my favorite. The narrative stays fresh and there is enough detail that you can really get involved with the story and no too much detail that it becomes tedious. I am very much looking forward to the next book in the series.

A 50-something who loves sci-fi, cozy mysteries, thrillers, an occasional romance, and any genre if it is a good story. And especially if it makes me laugh! No vampires or zombies though - these are NOT sci-fi!

The Liaden Universe is a full and complex one. This tale starts with the original Cantra yos Phelium, and M Jela and his Tree. Yes, the tree is a character in this story as much as any other character. I will say that I enjoyed this book much more in audio than in print, which I don't often say! The narration is excellent, because it isn't over-dramatic, but is just enough to differentiate between characters.

This download also has a conversation between the narrator and Steve Miller. Don't skip it! It gives a lot of insight into what goes into narrating an audiobook, as well as learning a bit about how Steve and Sharon write their books. As well as the good news that a sequel to Balance of Trade is coming!

Crystal Soldier is the chronologically first book in the Liaden Universe series from Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. It was, however, written several years after the first published volume (Agent of Change) and is thus on Audible as part of the "Books of Before" sequence.

Crystal Soldier tells the story of M. Jela and Cantra yos'Phelium, as well as the original Tree of Korval's Tree and Dragon. This is very much a prequel to the later events of Clan Korval, and leads naturally to the next book, Crystal Dragon and the migration to Liad to escape the total destruction of the universe.

If you're new to the Liaden Universe, you have a choice of how best to read the books. Personally, I prefer strict chronological order, but a valid argument can be made for published order as well, since that is how others have discovered this fascinating universe. If you're inclined that way, then start with the Agent of Change sequence first, and loop back to the earlier books when you're ready.

The narrator for this three book set of Before books is Kevin T. Collins, and he does an excellent job. Each character has a distinctive voice, but the distinction is subtle and doesn't interfere with the narrative. This was my first book with Mr. Collins as narrator, but I'll be searching out more. Well done.

I love this narrator. He doesn't try to adopt a unique voice for each character, but yet he sounds real, and I can tell who is speaking. As for the book, the first third, especially when Jela meets Tree, is very good, yet slow. Likewise, the last third, from meeting Uncle until the end, is very good -- and nicely paced. The middle section got a bit tedious at times.

This is book 1 in the Liaden series. The crystal soldier is probably M. Jela Granthor's Guard, a supersoldier and generalist, with extra strength and stamina, increased vision and memory, etc. Jela is consistently portrayed as dutiful -- to preserving all life, Tree in particular.

Jela and baby Tree unite. Baby Tree talks to Jela in images, and creates special seed pods for Jela to eat. Jela lugs that potted plant around throughout the book. Lol.

Then Jela meets peerless pilot Cantra yos'Phelium. Some good scenes, but they circle warily. Had to laugh at Cantra's ironic take on life in general and on Tree in particular. With sharp self-mockery, she wonders, "Why am I listening to a vegetable?"

Dulsey and Uncle each play a role. I didn't care for either of them, but especially Dulsey. She seemed self-centered, and acted like she was entitled.

The villains, the big bad Sheriekas, are perfect beings of unlimited power, determined to destroy everything and everyone not similarly perfect. They were far too nebulous and vague. Poorly developed.

I liked Rool Tiazan and his Gray Lady, but they didn't show up till the last section. Cool scene, when they first met Tree.

I want to say either I liked this book or I disliked it, but really, it was a bit bland, and had neither any Big Ideas nor characters memorable enough to leave an impression. Filled the time but left me with no desire to read the rest of the 11+ book series. Evidently, this book introduces plots and characters who recur throughout the series and is something of a prequel.

The Shereika want to wipe out all life in the universe, and humanity is fighting a losing war against them. Humankind has bred people to be soldiers, slaves, and assassins, creating a fairly traditional aliens-light space opera universe. Even the Shereika are actually genetically engineered humans. Humans are losing the war and falling back from the spiral arm. The Shereika are mostly an off-stage threat in this book, intergalactic bogeymen who have listening devices and agents everywhere, but don't show up in their planet-killing ships... yet.

The POV alternates between two main characters. M. Jela Granthor's Guard is a genetically-engineered soldier who, while fighting the Shereika on a distant uninhabited planet, happened upon a group of sentient trees and deduced that they had somehow fended off the Shereika. So he carts a tree around for the rest of the book. On a special assignment from the military, he runs across Cantra yos'Phelium, a generically-engineered assassin who's now the solo captain of a "dark trader" - i.e., a smuggler. The two of them end up rescuing a genetically-engineered slave, Dulsey, and taking her to a mysterious man known as the Uncle who runs some sort of free colony for other slaves like Dulsey, out in the beyond.

Crystal Soldier has a bit of a Firefly vibe to it, and also reminded me of "The Phoenix in Flight" by Sherwood Smith and Dave Trowbridge, another first novel by an authorial duo in a sprawling epic space saga, and another one I found moderately entertaining but just too paint-by-numbers to really get invested in what happens next. I don't know what it says about my reading tastes that star-destroying mega-battlecruisers no longer intrigue me. I loved Niven and Saberhagen back in the day, but 11 books of this just make me think of better or more interesting books on my TBR list.

So, this was good SF, not great SF, and if you are looking for a long series maybe it will grab you more than it grabbed me.

There is a long interview at the end of this audiobook between the author and the narrator which I found pretty interesting, since the narrator, Kevin T. Collins, answers lots of questions you might have about how audiobooks (particularly SF audiobooks) are put together.

1*=I didn't like it.....
2*=It was OK......
3*=It was good but I will never read it again..........
4*=Maybe I will read it again in the future..............
5*=I will definitely read it again(maybe more than once)

The first book was tough in the beginning.Don't misunderstand me the book drawn my attention from the very first minutes, but all the time I had a feeling like it's dragging it's heels.14 hours is too much, it should've been 5 or 6 at the most, but the story was interesting, the narration also matched the tempo of the book so Kevin T. Collins fits to this book.

But to make sure I will get the second book. Read my next review soon.

I would listen to Crystal Soldier again because many elements it sets up continue to recur throught the Liaden series. Although I have read most of the Liaden books more than once, I had forgotten where some things came from. In addition, Sharon Lee's language is outstanding, and lends itself extremely well to being read aloud.

What other book might you compare Crystal Soldier to and why?

In the Liaden universe, this book and its sequel are genuinely different. Metaphorically, they serve the same role as The Hobbit served relative to The Lord of the rings.

Have you listened to any of Kevin T. Collins’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Kevin Collins is workmanlike.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I would never listen to any book in one sitting.

Any additional comments?

The Liaden universe is, in many ways, as well thought through as Tolkien, but the actual writing is more tersely poetic. It offers insights into human connections in an exotic and beautiful package.

I loved this book because I read it with the main characters being a hard as nails engineered space soldier and a tough space captain. I can not stand this version because they are read as emotional wrecks on the point of collapse. Even when the narration in the fraught scenes is almost sobbed out. Oh god save me! Our tough captain isn't dissolving in pathetic tears when the battle scenes are playing out, she's tough and capable not some teenage ninny. So she is not happy, but she does her job.

In some ways this was an education for me, it proved that you can completely ruin the tone of a book by reading it in a silly voice. If that is how the authors intended it to be read then I am probably done with their work and their worlds. But they write about capable men and women, not about pathetic ninnies, so I'll persist and just avoid Kevin Collins in the future.

Well as you can assume from the title , i really did not like this one little bit, the narrator was , well whats the polite way of saying dull, nah lets stick with Just plain Dull, his narration was one toned and you constantly found yourself lapsing into mind wandering episodes. I strongly urge you listen to the sample.

To be fair the story was a bit full of itself. You know when someone uses lots of words to describe a idea and after listening for a few minutes you think to yourself 'i have not got a clue what your talking about' well this pretty much sums up this audio book. The action scenes leave you cold. A book with potential , but unfortunately falls way way short.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

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